Algiers — The preliminary draft organic law on elections, the first draft of which was finalized and distributed to political parties for enrichment, sets the rules for financing and monitoring electoral and referendum campaigns, including the prohibition for any candidate to receive donations in cash or in kind from a foreign state.
Indeed, Article 87 of the draft, prepared by the National Commission in charge of preparing the draft revision of the organic law on electoral regime, chaired by Ahmed Laraba, states that it is prohibited for any candidate in national or local elections to receive, directly or indirectly, donations in cash or in kind or any other contribution, in any form whatsoever, from a foreign state or a natural or legal person of foreign nationality.
Article 89 specifies, however, that “is not considered foreign financing any donation from Algerians established abroad for the financing of the electoral campaigns of candidates or the list of candidates in the electoral districts abroad.”
The document provides in its Article 90 that any donation exceeding 1,000 dinars must be made by check, transfer, automatic debit or credit card.”
In addition, article 91 states that “the campaign expenses of a candidate for the presidential election may not exceed 100 million dinars in the first round and 120 million dinars in the second round”.
Article 95 of the draft law provides that “any candidate for presidential or legislative elections who finances the electoral campaign with donations is required to appoint a treasurer of the electoral campaign.” “The treasurer or the financial delegate of the electoral campaign is appointed by virtue of a written declaration of the candidate or the head of the list” (article 96).
In order to ensure the regularity of the financing of the electoral campaign, the document stipulates, by virtue of article 108, that “the campaign account for the presidential elections is created in the name of the candidate and for the legislative elections in the name of the candidate delegated by the party or the candidates of the list of independents.”
Regarding the resources for financing electoral campaigns, the draft law specifies in its article 86 that they come from “the contribution of political parties consisting of the contributions paid by their members and the income from the party’s activity.”
According to the provisions of the same article, it is also about the personal contributions of the candidate, donations in cash or in kind coming from citizens, as natural persons, in addition to the possible State aid granted to young candidates for legislative and local elections, a precision made concerning a possible reimbursement by the State of part of the expenses of the electoral campaign.
A commission to control the financing of campaign accounts
In the area of control of campaign and referendum financing, Article 113 provides for the creation of a commission to control the financing of campaign and referendum accounts with the National Independent Electoral Authority (ANIE). This Commission is composed of a magistrate appointed by the Supreme Court, a magistrate appointed by the Council of State, a magistrate appointed by the Court of Auditors, a representative of the High Authority for Transparency, Prevention and Fight against Corruption and a representative of the Ministry of Finance.
Article 114 states that the campaign account is deposited with the Campaign Audit Commission within two (2) months from the date of proclamation of the final results”. Once this period has expired, the candidate or the list of candidates may not claim reimbursement of their election expenses.
Within this framework, the Commission for the Control of the Financing of Electoral Campaign Accounts verifies the validity and reliability of the operations recorded in the campaign accounts, and renders, within a period of six (6) months, a contradictory decision for validation, modification or rejection of the account”, states the same article.
In this context, article 119 stipulates that the decisions of the Campaign Accounts Financing Control Commission may be appealed to the Independent Authority within 10 days from the date of notification of the decision.
Similarly, by virtue of the provisions of article 119, the decisions of the Authority may be appealed to the Council of State within a period of one (1) month, starting from the date of notification of its decision.